Hugh Griffin has joined our firm to develop our appellate practice group, after leading the appellate practice group at Lord, Bissell & Brook LLP, with more than 35 years of experience in the reviewing courts. He has handled over 500 appeals in the Illinois Appellate Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, over 25 other state courts, and U.S. Courts of Appeals throughout the country.
Hugh has taught appellate practice (The John Marshall Law School, 1973-74) and has given numerous speeches on appellate practice at the local and national level. His presentation on oral argument at the 1987 ABA convention was later published in the TIPS practice Journal, Fall 1987, and republished in other law journals.
Hugh has twice been a director of the Illinois Appellate Lawyers Association (1979 to 1981 and 1984 to 1986), and also served as the president of the Association (1997 to 1998). Hugh was the 1989-90 chairman of the Appellate Advocacy Committee of the Tort Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association. In 1991, he was nominated and accepted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He served 9 years on the llinois Supreme Court Rules Committee and was appointed by the Supreme Court as the Committee's Vice Chairman from 2003 to 2006.
Hugh has been selected as an Illinois Leading Lawyer and Super Lawyer in appellate practice.
Major Cases- *Burger v. Lutheran General Hospital (Illinois Appellate Court): Upheld the constitutionality of amendments to the Hospital Licensing Act permitting ex parte conversations with treating physicians and hospital attorney
- *Dubin v. Michael Reese Hospital (Illinois Supreme Court) Successfully argued that the doctrine of strict liability in tort did not apply to a hospital's use of x-radiation
- *Garcia v. Edgewater Hospital (Illinois Appellate Court): Obtained a ruling upholding a Jehovah's Witness release and reversing a jury verdict against the hospital
- *Holton v. Memorial Hospital (Illinois Supreme Court): Obtained the reversal of a $5 million medical malpractice judgment because of the misconduct of plaintiff's counsel
- *Kirk v. Michael Reese Hospital (Illinois Supreme Court): Obtained a ruling that a hospital owed no duty to third parties who were not hospital patient
- *Rohm and Haas Company v. Continental Casualty Company ( Pennsylvania Supreme Court) and Tribune Co. v. Allstate Ins. Co (Illinois Appellate Court): Upholding denials of coverage for environmental claims on various grounds including fraudulent concealment, known loss, and late notice
- *Chicago Transit Authority v. Commonwealth Edison (Illinois Appellate Court): Defeated CTA's $9 million claim for contractual indemnity
- *Richard Rosen v. Saks Incorporated (Illinois Appellate Court): Reversed trial court's refusal to enforce arbitration/no class action clause in consumer credit agreement
- *Trek Bicycle Corp. v. Thane (9th Circuit Court of Appeals): Obtained reversal of summary judgment against Trek in trademark infringement claim
- *Badische Corp. v. Kaylor (Supreme Court of Georgia): Successfully argued that an accountant argued owed no duty to a third-party bank that subsequently relied on the accountant's audit of its client.
- *Carter v. Skokie Valley Detective Agency (Illinois Appellate Court): Obtained the reversal of a judgment against a detective agency on the grounds that the agency's negligent hiring of a guard who murdered a store cashier was not the proximate cause of the murder
- *Cartwright v. Goodyear tire & Rubber Co.(Illinois Appellate Court): obtained a new trial of a $6 million judgment against Goodyear because of the plaintiff's claims of military heroism
- *Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's London v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R.R (Kansas Supreme Court): Summary judgment against insurers reversed on hearing loss cases
- *Cortes v Ryder Truck Rental (Illinois Appellate Court): Obtained the reduction of a verdict against a trucking company from $16 million to $2million
- *Delmuro v. Commonwealth Edison Co. (Illinois Appellate Court): Successful in upholding the reversal of a $3 million punitive award against Commonwealth Edison Co.
- *Dixon v. CSX Transportation Co. (Fourth Circuit- Supervisory): Represented railroad excess insurers in reversal of a $16 million verdict against the CSX in a crossing accident
- *Domtar v. Niagara Fire Ins. Co. ( Minnesota Supreme Court): Obtained a favorable ruling re allocation of environmental claims over various years of insurance coverage
- *Georgia Pacific v. Granite State Ins. Co. (Eleventh Circuit): Court affirmed a summary judgment in favor of insurers on the ground that environmental claims were intended and expected
- *Hasemann v. Illinois Insurance Guaranty Fund (Illinois Supreme Court): Court held that full uninsured motorist's limits must be deducted from claims against the Fund
- *Hutchinson v. Westinghouse (Pennsylvania Appellate Court-Supervisory): Represented excess insurers in the reversal of a $20 million award to a worker crushed by a Westinghouse elevator
- *Kerr- McGee v. Aetna Casualty Co. (Oklahoma Supreme Court): Court upheld a pollution exclusion barring multimillion- dollar environmental claims against insurers
- *Kinnavy v. Lloyd's Underwriters (Michigan Appellate and Supreme Courts) Obtained decisions upholding the aviation exclusion in a life insurance policy.
- *Klugesherz v. Honda (Missouri Court of Appeals): Assisted St. Louis counsel in obtaining and upholding JNOV overturning a $7.50- million product-liability award against Honda in an ATV accident.
- *Linegar v. Armour of America (Eight Circuit): Obtained the outright reversal of a million-dollar verdict against the manufacturer of a bulletproof vest that a police officer was wearing at the time of his death
- *Monarch Ins. Co. v. Castellano (Illinois Appellate Court): Obtained a ruling that upheld a geographical exclusion is an aviation policy
- *Monarch Ins. Co. of Ohio v. Prince (Fourth Circuit): Successful in having a policy voided because of material misrepresentations in an insurance application
- *Ormet v. Certain Underwriters of Lloyd's (Ohio Supreme Court): Upheld insurers'late notice defense to multi-million dollar environmental damage claim
- *Ryan v. Harvester (Illinois Appellate Court-Supervisory): Achieved the reversal of a $3 million verdict against a pick up truck manufacture
- *Seaway Port Authority v. Excess Insurers (Minnesota Court of Appeals): Successful in having the court hold that an excess insurer's policy had no duty to drop down and cover a shortfall due to the primary carrier's insolvency
- *Stambaugh v. International Harvester (Illinois Supreme Court): Obtained the reversal of compensatory and punitive damages awards against a tractor manufacturer
- *Tardi v. Henry (Illinois Appellate Court): Obtained decision establishing the inadmissibility in Illinois civil actions of testimony enhanced by hypnosis
Education
Notre Dame Law School, J.D., 1968, case editor, Law Review
Loyola University of Chicago, B.A., 1965, Dean's list
Bar Admissions
Association to Illinois State Bar Association, 1968
CourtsU.S. District Court, N.D. Illinois, 1968
U.S. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit), 1987
U.S. Court of Appeals (5th Circuit), 1985
U.S. Court of Appeals (6th Circuit), 1992
U.S. Court of Appeals (7th Circuit), 1972
U.S. Court of Appeals (8th Circuit), 1988
U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Circuit), 1984
U.S. Court of Appeals (10th Circuit), 1984
U.S. Court of Appeals (11th Circuit), 1986
U.S. Court of Appeals (Federal Court), 1999
Professional and Community OrganizationsAmerican Academy of Appellate Lawyers
American Bar Association
Appellate Lawyers Association
Chicago Bar Association
Illinois Appellate Lawyers Association
Illinois Defense Counsel
Illinois State Bar Association
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